The Constant
é o quinto episódio da 4ª Temporada de Lost, e foi ao ar dia 28 de Fevereiro de 2008. Sinopse Desmond está no helicóptero com Sayid e Frank, olhando para a foto dele com Penny. Frank está voando de acordo com as coordenadas que Daniel o informara, quando Sayid fica preocupado quando ele começa a levá-los exatamente na direção de uma tempestade. Eles passam por uma turbulência e Frank garante que eles irão ficar bem. A turbulência começa a ficar cada vez pior enquanto Frank tenta não sair da coordenada a que havia sido informado. Enquanto isso, Desmond está tendo flashes. Desmond acorda em uma vila militar. Seu Sargento começa a gritar para ele por ele não ter acordado na hora do chamado. Ele ordena uma explicação e Desmond explica que ele estava tendo um sonho em que estava em um helicóptero, voando sobre o oceano, antes de entrar em uma tempestade. O Sargento comenta ao menos era um sonho militar mas não deixa de ridicularizá-lo. Como uma punição pela falta de concentração de Desmond, o Sargento manda que todos estejam prontos para a manhã em quatro minutos, metade do tempo normal. Desmond acorda no tempo presente após o seu flash e está aparentemente desorientado. Ele começa a tentar tirar o seu cinto de segurança e a se apavorar, fazendo-o parecer como se quisesse pular do helicóptero. Quando Sayid o pergunta se ele está bem, se torna visível que ele não reconhece ninguém no helicóptero, e também que ele está sofrendo de amnésia como um efeito colateral da tempestade. A tempestade passa e o helicóptero pousa no cagueiro. Keamy e Omar vêm correndo em direção a Frank, perguntando quem Desmond e Sayid são e por quê ele os trouxeram com ele. Frank diz para ele que eles são sobreviventes do vôo 815. Desmond está angustiado e começa a gritar dizendo que não reconhece Sayid e Frank. Sayid tenta acalmá-lo, sem nenhum sucesso. Keamy diz que ele vai levar Desmond para a enfermaria para que o médico deles dê uma olhada nele para então Sayid poder vê-lo de novo. Sayid concorda relutantemente. Enquanto eles vão pegar Desmond, que está na lateral do barco, ele tem um outro flash. Ele está na chuva, de pé, enquando todos os outros em seu regime estão fazendo flexções. O Sargento zomba dele e faz com que todo o regime comece a correr por causa de seu comportamento irregular. Depois disso, Desmond começa com um de seus amigos do regime, e conta para ele sobre os "sonhos" que ele anda tendo. Seu amigo o chama de maluco, mas pergunta se tinha alguma pessoa que ele conhecesse nesse "sonho". Desmond, então, lembra que no helicóptero ele estava segurando uma foto de Penny. Ele então vai para uma cabine telefônica que está ali próximo. No entanto, assim que ele está para entrar na cabine, uma outra pessoa de seu regime sai, e esbarra nele, sarcasticamente o agradecendo pelo trabalho extra que todos tiveram por causa da desobediência de Desmond. Keamy e Omar escoltam Desmond até a enfermaria, na qual eles o prendem. Desmond entra em pânico e começa a bater na porta, gritando, pedindo para sair de lá. Ele escuta uma voz atrás dele dizendo: "Você tem tem isso". Ao virar, ele vê um homem deitado na cama, amarrado nela. O homem pergunta para ele se "isso está acontencendo" com ele também. De volta à praia, Jack e Juliet estão preocupado com o helicóptero, e eles não têm escutado de Sayid e Desmond agora há um dia. Juliet percebe que Charllote e Daniel não estão tão preocupados, mesmo apesar do cargueiro estar 40 milhas dali - 20 minutos à vôo, e os questiona em relação à isso. Contra o conselho de Charllote, Daniel admite que a perceptação do tempo na ilha pode ser diferente do que o tempo fora da ilha. Ele diz que enquanto Frank usar as coordenadas a que foi submetido, as pessoas no helicóptero estarão bem. Se não, poderia existir "efeitos colaterais". Enquanto isso, no convés, Sayid observa o cargueiro. Ele nota uma câmera de circuito fechado em uma rede ao lado dele. A olhar para cima, em um convés superior, ele observa Keamy e Frank discutindo. Depois de Frank descer as escadas para encontrá-lo, Sayid pergunta porque que eles saíram da ilha ao anoitecer e chegaram ali ao meio-dia. Frank não sabe. Sayid então pede o telefone, o que Frank só entregará se Sayid passar a arma. Sayid passa a arma para Frank e liga para Jack. Daniel começa a folhear seu diário quando ele chega em uma página que diz: "Se alguma coisa der errado, Desmond hume será o meu constante". Aparentemente este é o caso porque Daniel sabe que Desmond irá encontrar com ele no passado e porque conhece Desmond no presente da ilha. Curiosidades Gerais *This episode does not conform to the usual Flashback or Flashforward method seen on the series. Instead, Desmond is aware that he is traveling between 1996 and 2004. Desmond-centric episode Flashes Before Your Eyes diverges from the usual format in a similar way. *Penny's phone number is 7946 0893 in London. ** 020 7946 0893 was a Season 4 bonus clue in the Find 815 ARG ** Although this looks to be a UK telephone number in London, it is an unassigned number (Ofcom specifies that numbers beginning with 020 7946 0 are for drama purposes http://www.ofcom.org.uk/telecoms/ioi/numbers/num_drama?a=87101). *Penny's address is 423 Cheyne Walk in London. ** 423 Cheyne Walk was a Season 4 bonus clue in the Find 815 ARG ** It is near where Desmond's photograph with Penny was taken. In addition, Widmore Industries has its offices in the same neighbourhood. . ** Cheyne Walk is a famous street in London known for its famous inhabitants. Residents have included Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, George Eliot, Dante Rossetti, and Henry James (who wrote The Turn of the Screw). * Queen's College, Department of Physics and Southfield were Season 4 bonus clues in the Find 815 ARG *The journal that Charles Widmore buys in the auction is the same journal referenced by Oscar Talbot in Chapter 5 of the Find 815 ARG. Talbot was working for a branch of the Widmore Corporation, and says that his employers had the journal. *The journal's seller is named Tovar Hanso *After the auctioning of the Black Rock Diary, some of Charles Dickens' belongings are place up for bidding. *According to the calendar on the wall, as well as Desmond, the real-time events of this episode take place on Day 94 (Christmas Eve) when Sayid, Desmond and Frank left the island. This means that while it is Day 94 on the Freighter, it is actually Day 96 on the Island. *Camp Millar was a season 4 bonus clue in the Find 815 ARG *Kevin Durand, who plays Keamy, was in the movie Smokin' Aces with Matthew Fox and Nestor Carbonell. He was also in the movie Wild Hogs with M.C. Gainey. *In the Bible, Daniel, like Daniel Faraday, is known to have skills in interpreting dreams (Desmond tells his Sgt. that he had a dream). *The phone that Sayid connects to the battery is a standard Lineman's Handset (looks like a Harris TS22). It is little more than a rugged corded telephone and is incapable of placing calls without a land line or sophisticated external communications equipment that can provide such a line. Connecting such a handset to a battery would have merely lit up an indicator and produced a single click sound. *Jeremy Davies, who portrays Daniel Faraday, also portrays Tom-Tom, the main character in the movie "The Million Dollar Hotel." Tom-Tom is in love with a woman named Eloise. Likewise, Davies' character Faraday is closely linked to another Eloise: the white lab rat. *Minkowski mentions that in the Radio Room on the ship there is a blinking light and incoming calls from Penny, very similar to what was seen in The Looking Glass communication room. Notas de Produção *Ben, Claire, Hurley, Jin, Kate, Locke, Michael, Miles, Sawyer, and Sun do not appear in this episode. * The scenes in the military camp were filmed on the slopes of Diamond Head. http://www.hawaiiweblog.com/2007/10/19/lost-notes/ Temas Recorrentes *Desmond moves back and forth between 1996 and 2004 — 8 years apart. *Penny lives at 423 Cheyne Walk (4-23 or 42-3) *The frequency that Faraday gives Desmond is 2.342 (23, 42) *The auction lot number of the Black Rock diary is 2342. *Faraday says that while Desmond was in a catatonic state in his room at Oxford, 75 minutes had passed. Desmond perceived the same amount of time as 5 minutes. The ratio of 75:5 is equivalent to 15:1. **At the auction, Widmore is bidder number 755, the same numbers as the time ratio. *Charlotte earned her doctorate at Oxford. Daniel taught there. *Minkowski is unable to find a constant and dies as a result. On the other hand, Desmond is able to find a constant (Penelope) and manages to avoid death. . Minkowski's constant, also called Minkowski's theorem, is the foundation of geometry of numbers. Referências Culturais * 755 is Hank Aarons career home run total. * Philip K. Dick's ''VALIS''-In the novel the main character Horselover Fat (himself a version of author Philip Dick), gets exposed to a pink laser which provides him with knowledge percieved to be from God. This 'living information' reveals details from the future. It also shows him that his currently perceived reality is a facade, that infact he is a citizen of ancient Rome. This is analogous to the pink laser that was used on Faraday's test mouse, Eloise. * Kurt Vonnegut's ''Slaughterhouse Five''-Desmond, during one of his flashbacks/time travels, speaks to someone else in the military with him. His friend's name is Billy. Billy Pilgrim is the main character in Slaughterhouse Five. The narration of the story of Billy Pilgrim begins: "Listen. Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time." When Desmond is with Daniel in 1996 and Daniel is about to experiment on Eloise, he says that he is going to unstick her in time. Also, the narrator of Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut, says that he likes to call old girlfriends late at night. Desmond calls Penelope at night. When Desmond spoke with Mrs. Hawking, she said that events are structured and that the universe will course correct. In Slaughterhouse Five, Billy Pilgrim explains that , according to the Tralfamadorians, aliens who can see the fourth dimension, time is structured and events cannot be changed (we are like bugs in amber). When asked about the end of the universe, the Tralfamadorians explain that one of their test pilots presses a button that destroys the universe. Billy asks why they cannot stop the pilot from pressing the button, and they reply that the pilot always has and always will press the button. The moment is structured that way. Desmond's purpose, according to Mrs. Hawking, is to turn the key and he cannot avoid it. The moment is structured that way. Billy Pilgrim sees the future, and even predicts his own death. Desmond predicted Charlie's death and other events on the island. * Many elements of this episode are similar to the film Je t'aime, je t'aime (1968) by French director Alain Resnais. In the film, a man is used as part of an experiment wherein he is sent back in time repeatedly by scientists to re-experience specific moments in his life. Once he arrives in the past, he seems to have only a vague understanding of where he is or where he came from. When he returns to the future, he is comatose. In the film, they first experiment on mice, like Farraday. There are a number of instance in the film where, in the man's past, the mice from the future appear where they should not be. One of these places is on a beach. Resnais' films often deal with the relationship between time and memory. * How to Disappear Completely: When Desmond lands on the freighter, he says "I'm not here; this isn't happening". These are the lyrics of the chorus of the fourth song from Radiohead's fourth album, Kid A. *All Good Things: The series finale of Star Trek The Next Generation features Captain Picard in three different timelines. He becomes unstuck in time, like Desmond and Billy Pilgrim. As he bounces back and forth, he becomes aware of a temporal anomaly in all three timelines. In essence, this anomaly is The Constant. Only when he identifies the constant and directly contacts it is he able to stay in one timeline, ignorant of his future. Damon Lindelof confirmed that "All Good Things" was a big influence in writing "The Constant" here. * La Jetée by Chris Marker (1962). After a nuclear holocaust, scientists send an unnamed protagonist into the past (and later, the future) through experiments designed to expose human consciousness to "time waves." Only those of a stable mental disposition can successfully receive these waves and travel through time without going mad. The main character, referred to as the Man, falls in love with a Woman in the past, but his decision to remain with her rather than stay in the present results in his own death (an event he had witnessed as a child.) The essayist film dealing with time and memory served as the basis for Terry Gilliam's Twelve Monkeys and was referred to in Blade Runner when the photo of Rachel's mother briefly animates. Técnicas Literárias * Minkowski says he can't get back. * In 1996 Desmonds commanding officer asks him why it took him so long to reach his mark. Which is in direct relationship to the present circumstance of the helicopter taking too long to reach the freighter. Referência a Episódios * Frank is told by Daniel to follow a bearing of 305, which is a Northwest direction. Eko's stick bore the inscription "Lift up your eyes and look north - John 3:05". * Daniel asks if Desmond had recently been exposed to high levels of radiation or electromagnetism. Perguntas não respondidas *What is contained within the journal of the Black Rock's captain? *Had Daniel remembered Desmond when he first met him on the island? *Why were the Freighter people under strict orders to not answer Penelope's call? *Why are they so angry that Frank brought people back to the boat? *How does Penny know about the island? *Who sabotaged the radio room? *Who opened the sick bay door? *Why could Minkowski remember events that happened before he became "unstuck" in time, though Desmond could not? *What do the different color Xs on the calendar represent? *What does Penny say she has been researching when the phone breaks up? *Who is the captain of the Freighter? *Locke and Desmond both experienced the explosion of the Hatch, exposing them to the electromagnetic anomaly. Why doesn't Locke experience flash-forwards like Desmond? *If Locke gets off the island, will he experience the same "unstuck in time" phenomenon as Desmond? *If the calendar indicates Day 94 on the boat while it's Day 96 on the Island, why do neither Sayid nor Desmond seem to be alarmed by it? Links Externos *ABC Primetime Grid * ABC Medianet Press Release Bundle (02/11/08): PDF Category:Centrado em Desmond